page_title: Kabul hoard
section_title: Greek coins
hierarchical_section_title: Kabul hoard / Description of the hoard / Greek coins
caption_attribution_description: English: Attica, Athens. 454-404 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.85 g). Helmeted head of Athena right / ΑΘΕ, owl standing right; olive-sprig and crescent above. SNG Copenhagen 39.
context_page_description: The Kabul hoard, also called the Chaman Hazouri, Chaman Hazouri or Tchamani-i Hazouri hoard, is a coin hoard discovered in the vicinity of Kabul, Afghanistan. The hoard, discovered in 1933, contained numerous Achaemenid coins as well as many Greek coins from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. Approximately one thousand coins were counted in the hoard. The deposit of the hoard is dated to approximately 380 BCE, as this is the probable date of the least ancient datable coin found in the hoard.
  This numismatic discovery has been very important in studying and dating the history of the coinage of India, since it is one of the very rare instances when punch-marked coins can actually be dated, due to their association with known and dated Greek and Achaemenid coins in the hoard. The hoard proves that punch-marked coins existed in 360 BCE, as also suggested by literary evidence. According to numismatist Joe Cribb, it suggests that the idea of coinage and the use of punch-marked techniques was introduced to India from the Achaemenid Empire during the 4th century BCE. However, numerous Indian scholars see the development of coinage in the Gangetic plains as an indigenous development.
context_section_description: The Greek coins recorded in the hoard were 30 coins from various Greek cities and about 34 from Athens with one Iranian imitation. Generally, Greek coins (both Archaic and early Classical) are comparatively very numerous in the Achaemenid coin hoards discovered in the East of the Achaemenid Empire, much more numerous than sigloi, suggesting that the circulation of Greek coinage was central in the monetary system of those part of the Empire.
  Archaic Greek coin types from the Kabul hoard
  The Kabul hoard contained some archaic Greek coin types (minted before 480 BCE), among them: archaic staters from Aegina, Thasos and Chios. These early coins were made using a die on the obverse with an illustrative design, while the back was formed with simple geometric punch-marks.
  Early classical Greek coin types from the Kabul hoard
  In addition, there were two early classical tetradrachms from Akanthos as well as a stater from Corcyra. There were also coins from the cities of Levant: Pamphylia, Cilicia and Cyprus. Numismatist J. Kagan states that these coins must have reached the Kabul area soon after they were minted.
  Bopearachchi and Cribb state that these coins "demonstrate in a tangible way the depth of Greek penetration in the century before Alexander the Great's conquest of the Achaemenid satrapies." According to Joe Cribb, these early Greek coins were at the origin of Indian punch-marked coins, the earliest coins developed in India, which used minting technology derived from Greek coinage.
caption: Early Classical coins from Athens were by far the most numerous coin type in the Kabul hoard. Circa 454-404 BCE.[27][28] "AΘE" for "Athens" in the right field on the reverse.
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